Sharia Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Sharia, which literally means “path to a watering place,” is the Islamic law based on the principles in the Quran and sunnah that were systematized in 100 to 200 A.H. (700–800 CE) into a legal framework regulating the public and private life of people living under Islamic rule. Fiqh (understanding) is the science of Islamic law developed from such sources. Based on the Quran’s eighty or so lawmaking verses, sharia’s compendia (collected juridical commentaries) embody the legal needs of early Islamic rule and gave rise to five sharia schools (four Sunni, one Shia), each possessing textual authority in matters of law.

Unlike other legal systems, the scope of sharia is very wide. As the expression of God’s will, not only does it organize interpersonal relations among Muslims (e.g., family, inheritance, sexuality) and their relationship to the state (e.g., penal law, foreign policy, jihad), but it also defines their relationship to God and informs their conscience by creating five levels of approved activities: forbidden (haram), blameworthy (makruh), permissible (mubah), praiseworthy (mustahab) and mandatory (wajib).

As sharia developed, legal scholars discussed the relative merit of reason as an exegetical tool for interpreting Islam’s sources with Sunni schools restricting its role more than the Shia school did. Once consolidated, the early process of interpretation gave way to rigidly scholastic legal doctrines based on seemingly infallible source materials and precedents set by classical jurists.

Islamic civilization began to wane in the sixteenth century in response to Western economic and technological superiority. In some Muslim regions in central Asia, North Africa, and the Near East, Western law was imposed following European conquests. Elsewhere in the Ottoman and Persian Empires, attempts were made to modernize the local legal systems by incorporating secular Western elements.

Although Islamic legal theory allows no law but God’s, early Islamic rulers had to make concessions to practical needs and the legal customs of the lands they conquered. As such they adopted secular administrative rules (Qanun). Although theoretically still subject to examination by religious scholars (ulema), they were rarely challenged because the latter often depended on secular rulers for positions. Hence, when secular modernization began in places like Turkey in the 1830s and Persia in the 1850s, it swept the Islamic world.

Nevertheless, a confluence of developments, including decolonization, the conflict in Palestine, and political repression and oil wealth in Arab states, nurtured their grievances, enabling Islamist supporters of sharia to assert themselves in the 1970s. Some took power, as in the case of Iran, while others were co-opted, as in Sudan and Pakistan. In all cases, proponents of sharia tried to re-Islamize the laws of Muslim nations. Although sharia is an international issue and is now sometimes referred to by diaspora communities in the West, the battle for its implementation primarily involves Muslims in Muslim-majority states challenging their more moderate coreligionists, with whom they often share the same urban middle-class background.

Bibliography:

Calder, N. “Sharia.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, edited by P. J. Bearman, T. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1960–2005.
Esposito, John L., ed. “Law.” In Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, vol. 2. London, Oxford University Press, 1995.
Hallaq,Wael B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories. London: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Weiss, Bernard G. Studies in Islamic Legal Theory. Boston: Brill. 2002.

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